SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: NFL legend Joe Montana and his wife Jennifer joined almost 60 residents from San Francisco’s Marina districts in suing the city council for its “antiquated” sewage system that caused massive flooding during last New Year’s Eve.
The 49ers quarterback joined the other enraged residents in filing the lawsuit against the city as the New Year's Eve flooding debilitated their lives and caused sewage water to enter their homes.
The Californian city received its second-heaviest rainfall of all time during New Year's, which disrupted life and unleashed millions of gallons of flood water that consisted of “highly contaminated and toxic fecal and other raw sewage matter,” reports Daily Mail.
Does San Francisco have a sewage problem?
The heavy rainfall during the New Year caused the manholes to overflow and the spillage of raw sewage entered the low-lying neighborhoods of the Bay area.
The news outlet reports more than 18 million gallons of wastewater flowed through the streets of San Francisco during that time.
The lawsuit filed by the residents of Marina district - one of the costliest neighborhoods of the city, stated, “It flowed in and around plaintiffs’ properties, permeating the soils, walls and floors, and depositing highly contaminated and toxic fecal and other raw sewage matter in and around Plaintiffs’ homes,” per San Francisco Chronicle.
Per the realtor, the average price of the properties in the area is $2.6 million.
The plaintiffs expressed their anger claiming, “The part of this system that runs through the Marina is antiquated and has been neglected and inadequately maintained by the city and county of San Francisco.”
The lawsuit continued, “As a result, the system routinely gets overwhelmed, overflows and inundates the plaintiffs’ properties and neighborhood with untreated sewage and contaminated water.”
The lawsuit is led by the former head of the city’s Human Rights Commission, Khaldoun Baghdadi, who told San Francisco Standard, “We don’t only trust the city to maintain the sewage infrastructure, but we pay it for doing so.”
Baghdadi further added, “When the city makes the decisions that cause raw sewage to flood homes, it is responsible for compensating residents.”
Why are sewage spills frequent in San Francisco?
The lawsuit claims the “antiquated” sewage system of the city is partially responsible for the flooding. Furthermore, the city also has a unique system where rainwater drainage and sewage are part of the same network, causing the two to get mixed with each other.
The time around New Year's also witnessed a record amount of rainfall with December 31, 2022 being the second wettest day in the history of San Francisco with 5.46 inches of rainfall.
The executive director of the environmental watchdog Baykeeper, Sejal Choksi Chugh, said in January, “What we're seeing here is the breakdown of the system,” per San Francisco Examiner.
She added, “When you have that huge inflow of excess water that the system is not built for, you end up having an overwhelm of the wastewater treatment plants.”
Due to the unprecedented rainfall, more than 18.6 million gallons of untreated or partially treated wastewater overflowed to the streets of the city, out of which 2.3 million gallons went to the bay, per San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board records obtained by the Chronicle.
However, the city council is not encouraging any blame upon its sewage system, emphasizing the huge amount of rainfall was the root cause of the disaster.
The spokesperson for the Office of the City Attorney Jen Kwart said, “It was the strongest storm to hit San Francisco in more than 170 years."
Kwart added, “The storm, and not the city’s infrastructure, was responsible for widespread flooding throughout the city. We are reviewing the complaint and will respond in court.”
